Once Upon a Time Cast and Creative Team Cast a Spell at PaleyFest 2012

Just like opening the Once Upon a Time storybook for which little Henry (Jared Gilmore) values above all else, the cast and creative team behind one of the most-buzzed about new shows of the 2011-2012 TV season took the stage to a rousing round of applause from a very appreciative audience. It wasn’t just the fact these gracious folks took time out of their busy schedule to travel from cold and wet Vancouver to sunny and beautiful Southern California to be honored by The Paley Center for Media’s annual Paley Fest, but also the fact series creators Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz gave the ecstatic audience a one two punch: Sunday night’s episode entitled “Dreamy” – that focused on the dwarfs, specifically Grumpy aka Leroy – as well as a 10-minute sneak peek at next week’s episode entitled “Red-Handed” that will focus, finally, on Red Riding Hood aka Ruby.

Cast and Creative Team of Once Upon a Time (copyright The Paley Center for Media)

But in true PaleyFest tradition a video clip from the archives of The Paley Center, specifically chosen for that night’s event, was featured. What clip was featured? None other than the acclaimed “Hush” episode from Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, in which all of Sunnydale is rendered speechless by “The Gentlemen” – very scary creatures from fairytale lore -who invade towns, taking away the voices of all the townspeople so they are incapable of speech, and more specifically the people’s ability to scream, in order for The Gentlemen to acquire – i.e., painfully remove – seven hearts from their chosen victims.

As the panel got underway with Matt Mitovich from TV Line acting as moderator, the cast and creative team took the stage. Among them were actors Raphael Sbarge (Archie/Jiminy Cricket), Robert Carlyle (Mr. Gold/Rumplestilskin), Lana Parrila (Regina/The Evil Queen), Ginnifer Goodwin (Mary Margaret/Snow White), Josh Dallas (David/Prince Charming) and Jennifer Morrison (Emma) as well as Executive Producer Steve Pearlman and, once again, series creators Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz.

Jennifer Morrison (Emma) (copyright The Paley Center for Media)

First and foremost, Matt shared some numbers with the panelist; such as that out of 20 new dramas that debuted this TV season, Once Upon a Time is the top rated out of all 20; the show is also the number one show among women between 18 and 49 years of all and, most importantly, Once Upon a Time is the number 1 show for family viewing, meaning more families sit down together to watch the show as a unit.

Some of the questions that were asked of the panelist included:

How the casting process worked with Eddy and Adam sharing that every actor for whom they approached (their dream choices for the roles) said yes (for which they are still extremely grateful and appreciative) and that they all simply elevated the material beyond anything they, as a team, could have even imagined;

Lana Parrilla (Evil Queen-Regina) (copyright The Paley Center for Media)

What was the inspiration for Robert in creating his unique portrayal of Rumplestilskin – he attributed much of the sound affects to noises his own 6-year old son would make while playing around at home;

How long the process is for Robert to become Rumplestilskin, to which he explained it takes 2 hours for him to get into full makeup, 20 minutes to just get the boots and part of his costume on and one hour to get out of makeup – oh, and Rumplestilskin’s nails are pre-made;

The elaborate and beautiful costumes for which Lana gets to wear as the Evil Queen are just incredible to which she shared they are just as beautiful as they seem but she finds it very hard to breathe in all of them and that just getting into the costume helps her immensely to get into character; and,

Does Emma believe what Henry says about the Storybrooke residents being fairytale characters to which Jennifer said “no way”, but she knows something isn’t quite right but she just can’t put her finger on what could really be the truth.

Robert Carlyle (Rumplestilskin-Mr. Gold) (copyright The Paley Cente for Media)

The creative team also allowed for a few tidbits to thrown out including the fact that Archie will be getting some new patients soon. And who would that be you wonder? None other than David and….what for it….Mr. Gold! Raphael was permitted (he joked) to reveal that ‘secret’ as well as the fact that Jiminy would be at the center of some more storylines very soon. It should also be noted that the cast and crew are currently filming episode 20 and they are currently in the stages of planning out the season finale.

It was always revealed that before the finale, viewers will learn the identity of The Stranger (guest star Eion Bailey) as well as learn what he is really doing in Storybrooke. The creators also teased that there are a lot of theories out there, and one of them just might be correct.

There will also be more frank talks between Regina and Mr. Gold now that they have both put their cards on the table (Mr. Gold knows he is Rumplestilskin and obviously Regina knows more about herself than just being the town mayor); and more revelations will be made as to what Snow White did to make the Evil Queen hate her so much.

Before the night could be brought to a close, each of the actors were asked which character they would play if they could play any of their choosing with Jennifer saying Prince Charming, Josh saying Rumplestilskin, Ginnifer said Henry and Raphael said the Evil Queen.

The lights were then brought up on the audience so that they could have their chance at questions and while a little under a dozen questions were asked of the cast and creative team, I have to focus on one very special question made by a close friend of mine (Mary) who was on a mission to ask Josh Dallas a question, but more importantly, to thank him for being the reason that her “beautiful almost 12-year-old grand-daughter has finally moved on to someone other than Justin Bieber”.

Mary, asking her question (copyright The Paley Center for Media)

As you can imagine, this brought the house down – in a most excellent way with lots of laughter, cheers and a rather flummoxed Josh, who at first was stunned and then flattered – being able to eventually say  “thank you very much”. But her question was also terrific as she asked Eddy and Adam “(after) this brilliant season that we have all loved so much, what on earth are you going to give us in the second season that is going to thrill us more than this?” While the creators’ answer was long, the general idea was this: “we want to keep surprising people; we want to keep having people ask what happens next”.

And in the end, isn’t that what fairytales are all about, not just the happy endings, but in finding out what is next, what is around that next bend in the road, what new delight will these characters be treated to, what new thrilling element will be added to make us want to tune in for another episode, another season.

Make sure to tune in to ABC next Sunday night (March 11) for the “Red-Handed” episode at 8/7c because you will NOT be disappointed!